


Ruthless Embrace

by Durrant



Category: Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - BDSM, Bonding, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 04:04:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2295920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Durrant/pseuds/Durrant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>The motorbike whizzed past John and his world stopped. </em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For a brief second, John saw his soulmate as the hostages were taken from the Stock Exchange. Now, he had to find him again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ruthless Embrace

The motorbike whizzed past John and his world stopped.

He, like everyone else, had read about what it was like to meet your soulmate but this was so different, so visceral, that he barely recognised what was happening. It was sudden and it was painful but for the first time in his life, for one brief second, he knew he belonged and it was perfect. He felt like someone had just hit him in the stomach; he could barely breathe and his heart was racing so fast he thought his head might explode.

The motorbike was almost out of sight but he only just stopped himself from running after it on foot. He had to make sure that the hostage was safe; that hostage was his soulmate and he was in danger. John turned and started running to the nearest cop car, more panicked than he could ever remember being. 

“Blake, where the hell are you going?!” someone yelled after him, but John didn’t have time to stop, to explain. His soulmate was speeding away him. For one brief second, he had felt that connection that romantic poets through the ages had raved about and he needed more of it. 

Someone grabbed at him. It was Connor, one of those bigoted Doms who only ever joined the force because they thought it would give them a little bit more of a power rush. 

“You know our orders, now be a good little sub and stay here,” Connor ground out. John wanted to punch his ugly face. His body told him that this man was a Dom, that he should obey him but John refused. He was more than his biology and he had to get to his mate. His Dom.

“Get off me!” John yelled, trying to shake the Dom’s hold. Connor was too strong for him but he struggled anyway, refusing to give up even though it was futile.

Their radios crackled but John wasn’t listening to anything that Dispatch had to say. All he could think about was getting to his mate. He didn’t stop struggling against Connor.

“For fuck’s sake, Blake!” Connor shouted, pushing him backwards so harshly that John stumbled and almost fell to the ground, “Didn’t you hear that? Batman’s back! Let’s get that fucker!”

But, for the first time in his life, John didn’t care about Batman. He didn’t feel that frisson of excitement that he had always felt whenever someone mentioned Batman. It didn’t matter to him anymore. All that mattered was finding what had happened to the hostages, to his soulmate.

* * *

“No, I’m sorry, Officer, I can’t let you in to see Mr Thorpe,” the duty nurse sighed. John had managed to harass the nurses enough to let him see every other hostage that had survived. 

“Look, it’s,” John licked his lips, hesitantly. He hated exposing his weakness like this, “I saw one of the hostages earlier, when he was being carried off and, and I quickened.”

The nurse’s face softened. A quickening, when soulmates found one another, was supposed to be a joyous event. The female sub put her hand over his and gave him a sad look.

“Mr Thorpe was very badly hurt. He isn’t expected to make it through the night. Are you sure it was him?”

“No,” John pulled his hand away, “But I’ve seen all the other hostages and…” John trailed off helplessly. He’d been so happy to have found his soulmate, he should have known he wasn’t destined to have that kind of happiness. So few people actually found their soulmates, a person had to be incredibly lucky. John had found his mate, but before he had even had a chance to talk to him, to even see his face clearly, his mate was going to die.

“Are you sure that you quickened over a hostage? I mean, could it have been one of the thieves?”

John frowned at her, about to tell her how ridiculous, how impossible, it would be for his soulmate to be a criminal. He was a policeman, his life was dedicated to helping those who could not defend themselves. His soulmate could not possibly be one of the thugs who had fought their way into the Stock Exchange with such little respect for human life. The small voice in the back of his head, that whispered that he was just as unlikely to be paired with some money obsessed Wall Street hotshot, was ignored.

A high pitched alarm rang out from the end of the corridor and nurses and doctors flurried into the room. The duty nurse, with a backward glance at John, scurried off to join them. John went back to his seat and waited. There was nothing he could do until he found his mate. There was no point returning to the precinct, or even to his apartment, until he had found his Dom.

He dozed off in the uncomfortable plastic hospital chair and woke with a start. The duty nurse was crouched down in front of him with a sad look on her face. 

“Hey. I’m sorry. It’s bad news. Mr Thorpe is dead,” she reached out and patted his hand. John let himself be petted, even though he usually detested being touched. “I’m afraid there’s more. His family is here. They say that as the quickening was never officially recognised, they don’t want to meet you.”

“That’s fine, that’s reasonable,” John said quickly. He’d never met the man. Obviously the family would not want anything to do with him. The nurse hummed angrily. 

“Actually, they’ve asked if you’d leave. They…I think they’re worried you’ll have some sort of claim on his estate.”

“Oh,” John said blankly, getting to his feet. “That’s… I’ll go.” He didn’t want any money. He’d spent the evening thinking that he would finally find someone that would love him, that would accept him as he was. Now that hope had been crushed, there was no point staying here any longer. 

The duty nurse nodded sympathetically as John stood and began the lonely walk back to his empty apartment. 

When he got back to his apartment there was a man sitting on his couch. 

John had no clue how the man had got in and his first instinct was to reach for his gun. His hand was already wrapping around his weapon when he looked into the stranger’s eyes and knew that this man was his mate. His hand fell from his gun, he felt like a puppet with its strings cut. He _belonged_ to this man. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t a good submissive; that he wasn’t a masochist, that he didn’t have the urge to obey every Dom he met. Because this was his mate. And this man was a criminal.

John’s hand went back to his gun. 

“You robbed the Stock Exchange,” John said, not quite drawing his gun. The man tilted his head, a bandana over his lower face and a large hood obscuring the rest. John had the vague impression of gleaming eyes, but nothing else. His breath sounded heavy and John had the urge to throw himself at the man’s feet, to try and comfort him and to do whatever he could to please him. 

“Do you believe that changes anything between us?” the man’s voice was deep and his tone questioning, yet there was an underlying threat that affected John deeply. He refused to give in.

“I’m a policeman,” John’s voice sounded thin in his ears. This was his mate, his soul mate. Was he honestly going to try and arrest him?

“You,” the man said, standing wearily with a small grunt, “Are mine.”

“No,” John took a small step backwards, “Look, I..We quickened, but without a Certificate of Bondage it doesn’t mean anything, legally.”

The man didn’t move but the atmosphere seemed to change, as if he didn’t need either words or body language to communicate his displeasure to John. 

“You would challenge my claim to you?”

John hesitated. He didn’t want to turn his soulmate away, but he could not bond himself to a criminal. Even if it was the only chance of belonging he had ever been offered. He had struggled for so long to not turn out the way that so many of those around him had. He had been just another lost sub, shoved into an orphanage; it was almost expected that he turn to petty crime and spend the rest of his life going in and out of jail. But he hadn’t. He’d worked hard, he’d studied and saved and done everything he could to make a better life for himself. If he allowed himself to be claimed by this Dom, then it would all have been for nothing. 

“You could turn yourself in. You’d still have to do some time, but we could bond. We’d have,” John shivered, “Conjugal visits.”

His soulmate took a step towards him, and John thought for one wild second that the man was agreeing, that he was turning himself in. His mate seemed to radiate strength and John’s mouth was salivating, he wanted to touch this man, to taste and be as close as he could get. His knees ached as he resisted the urge to kneel in front of his Dom. 

“You have spirit,” the man put one large hand on John’s shoulder. It rested there, almost gently, but John knew it was a symbol of the man’s claim upon him. This close, the man’s laboured breathing was even more obvious and John longed to see what was underneath the man’s bandana. “But you are a difficult mate.” 

Shame flooded through John before he could stop himself. He shouldn’t care what this stranger, this criminal thought of him. He would not suddenly lose his principles just because he had found his soulmate. Despite his hidden face, John could see the look of consideration in his mate’s eyes. Perhaps he really was thinking about turning himself in. John gave a small, hesitant smile. 

The gesture certainly seemed to affect his mate. He raised his hand from John’s shoulder to his face. John kept still as the man ran his finger along the curve of John’s lip and the wrinkle in his cheek that appeared whenever he smiled. It was like the man had never been smiled at and he was trying to work out what John was doing. The thought made John’s heart leap, and he smiled a little wider. 

“I had hoped,” the man’s voice was so sad, “That merely seeing you would be enough.”

Something stung John’s neck and he realised that his mate had injected him with something. He let out a betrayed gasp and tried to twist away. His body was already feeling sluggish and heavy. His knee buckled slightly and he struggled to keep standing. His eyes fluttered shut and his mate’s next words seemed like they came from very far away.

“But now I realise that could never be enough.”

John’s body went limp, but he didn’t fall. Large arms caught him and he was raised up to be pressed against a strong chest. They were moving and John clung to his mate as they both gently rocked. He nuzzled into his mate; above his head, he heard a deep sigh. He’d never felt safer than he did now, in the arms of the man who had drugged him, but he knew this was terribly wrong. 

He blinked his eyes open and pulled himself away, slightly surprised when the strong arms released him. It took a moment until he was sure he wasn’t going to topple over. 

“You drugged me!” John said accusingly.

“A mild sedative.”

He took a deep breath, now the shock of having the drug in his system had passed and he felt better. He was still too weak to fight or to run, but he wouldn’t give up so easily. His entire life had been spent not giving in to Doms who thought they were better than him. 

“I am Bane and you, Officer Blake, belong to me.”

There was something strange in a Dom using his title and second name. It was a mark of respect that John usually had to work hard to gain. But he didn’t have time to consider what that meant. 

“No,” John said, stepping back and putting a hand onto his gun. 

Bane backhanded him. John’s head snapped to the side and he collapsed; his mouth filled with blood. It hurt. John kept his head to the side and gingerly felt his teeth with his tongue. There was a split in his gum that was bleeding. The blood was hot and metallic; it tasted foul. John spat out a mouthful of blood onto the floor and sneered up at his soulmate. Adrenaline coursed through him, shaking off the effects of the drug and waking him up.

“You do not enjoy pain,” Bane sounded curious, but John had enough experience of Doms to not give away such valuable information. Most Doms were sadists, he assumed Bane was as well. A very few Doms enjoyed knowing that a sub wasn’t a masochist, that they were truly causing agony. Most Doms John had dated were disappointed that John didn’t enjoy pain; it had ultimately led to the end of almost every relationship he’d ever had. They were good guys who didn’t want to cause pain if it wasn’t going to be enjoyed, but didn’t enjoy a sex life that was so limited. 

John shrugged with one shoulder. 

“Pain is a necessary part of life. I find no joy in inflicting it.”

John’s eyes flicked up in astonishment. It was so difficult to know if Bane was being honest. It seemed incredible that such a physically dominant man was not a sadist. It was universally accepted that only weak Doms weren’t sadists.

Bane gave a mechanical sigh and bent to lift him up. John tried to shuffle away but it did him no good. The effects of the sedative were harder to ignore now, and he blinked heavily. Bane gathered him up into his arms and John couldn’t stay awake any longer. He passed out listening to the steady breathing of his strange soulmate.

**Author's Note:**

> I was clearing out my computer and remembered this. There is a whole story beyond this, but I'm honestly not sure if it'll get written. I just have too many fics ongoing...


End file.
